“A
stroke a day keeps the doctor away” isn't an evening news headline or “up
next” teaser you're likely to find here in rightward drifting America. After
all, this is a country where a Surgeon General was forced to resign after
only 15 months in office by a Democratic president because of conservative
outrage over her mild statement, in response to the question of whether
masturbation should be taught in schools as a way to prevent AIDS, that,
“Masturbation is something that is part of human sexuality, and is part of
something that perhaps should be taught.” A country where the staged and
silly baring of Janet Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl half time show
"unleashed a torrent of moral effluvia" and another retrogressive wave
of moral puritanism. And that's a crying shame in a nation where prostate
cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men, an affliction
that kills almost 30,000 annually. And the numbers are expected to swell in
the coming years.

According to the
National Prostate Cancer Coalition, “One in six American men is at
lifetime risk of prostate cancer. If a close relative has prostate cancer, a
man's risk of the disease more than doubles. With two relatives, his risk
increases fivefold. With three close relatives, his risk is about 97%. In
the next 24 hours, prostate cancer will claim the lives of over 80 American
men.”

A big story amidst
last week's health news are the findings of a new study published in the
April 7 edition of TheJournal of the American Medical
Association, which indicates the more frequently men have ejaculations,
the less likely they'll be afflicted by prostate cancer.

This, umm,
seminal study conducted by researchers from the National Cancer
Institute in Bethesda, Maryland is the largest of its kind to date. The
sexual habits of 30,000 men, age 46-81, were surveyed from 1992-2000. NCI's
Michael F. Leitzmann, the study's lead researcher, said in a prepared
statement: “Our results suggest that high ejaculation frequency possibly may
be associated with a lower risk of total and organ-confined prostate
cancer.” “These associations were not explained by potential risk factors
for prostate cancer, such as age, family history of prostate cancer, history
of syphilis or gonorrhea, smoking, and diet.”

The men began the
study in 1992 by filling out a questionnaire in which they provided the
history of their ejaculation frequency. They then responded to follow-up
questionnaires every two years. Given the differences between age groups in
monthly ejaculation frequency, researchers used a lifetime average to make
comparisons.

Leitzmann reports that
compared to a reference group who ejaculated four to seven times per month,
“each increase of three ejaculations per week was associated with a 15 per
cent decrease in the risk of prostate cancer.” “More than 12 ejaculations
per month would start conferring the benefit -- on average every second day
or so.”

The group with the
highest lifetime average -- 21 ejaculations a month -- were 33% less likely
to develop the cancer than the reference group.

The results buttress a
smaller 2003 Australian study by Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne. In
that study, 1079 men with prostate cancer answered a questionnaire about
their sexual habits. Their responses were compared to those of 1,259 healthy
men of the same age group. The study team concluded that the more men
between the ages of 20 and 50 ejaculate, the less their chances of
developing prostate cancer.

As
an article in New Scientist points out: “The results contradict
those of previous studies, which have suggested that having had many sexual
partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity, increases the risk of
prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent. The key difference is that these
earlier studies defined sexual activity as sexual intercourse, whereas the
latest study focused on the number of ejaculations, whether or not
intercourse was involved.”

The latest and earlier
Australian studies involved mostly white men. It's unclear whether the same
results would hold for
black men, who have the highest prostate cancer rates. However,
according to Leitzmann, the “biological mechanisms that might explain the
results probably do not differ by race.”

The exact explanation
for the finding is still a matter of speculation, but a plausible one is
what Australian researcher Graham Giles calls the “prostatic stagnation
hypothesis.” “Increased ejaculation may allow the prostate gland to clear
itself of carcinogens or of materials that form a substrate for the
development of carcinogens.” Another possibility is that frequent
ejaculations stop crystalloid micro-calcifications, which are associated
with prostate cancer, from forming in the prostate duct. It's suspected that
stress driven central nervous system activity may contribute to prostate
cell division and cancer growth. Ejaculation may release the psychological
tension that exacerbates this activity.

The new study's
researchers are quick to explain that the findings shouldn't be seen as
encouragement for intensified sexual activity, defined as ejaculation from
intercourse, masturbation, or during sleep. “I don't believe at this point
our research would warrant suggesting men should alter their sexual
behaviour in order to modify their risk,” says Leitzmann.

Not everybody is
convinced by the studies. Dr. Michael Naslund at the University of Maryland
Medical Center in Baltimore, noting that the questionnaires in the latest
study asks men older than 40 to recall their ejaculation frequencies when
they were in their 20s, asks, “Can they really remember how often they
ejaculated so many years ago?”

I don't know about
other guys, but I can give a pretty good estimate. The reasons why are none
of your business, but it doesn't seem to me at all far-fetched that most men
are capable of giving a relatively accurate weekly or monthly ejaculation
estimate.

Dr. Michael O'Leary, a
urologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says, “The study is
certainly amusing, but no one's going to tell their patients to ejaculate
more frequently,” added Dr. O'Leary. “This study is provocative more than
anything else.”

Graham Giles points
out that neither study examines ejaculation during the teen years, possibly
a crucial factor. Nevertheless, “Although much more research remains to be
done, the take home message is that ejaculation is not harmful, and very
probably protective of prostatic health -- and it feels good!”

Damn straight mate.

Clearly more research
needs to be done. You teen and 20-something males can help advance this
crucial research by keeping track of your Os, perhaps a sort of flow chart.
And don't exaggerate how many times you came, hard as that may be.

Whatever the final
results on the particular topic of prostate cancer, there can be no denying
that orgasms are good for men and women in general.

Dr. Theresa Crenshaw,
author of The Alchemy of Love and Lust, says DHEA, a sex hormone that
increases libido, is released during orgasm. “DHEA may be the most powerful
chemical in our personal world. It helps balance the immune system, improves
cognition, promotes bone growth, and maintains and repairs tissues, keeping
your skin healthy and supple. It can mean less frequent colds and flu.”
Indeed, a study by
Wilkes University in Pennsylvania reports individuals who have sex once
or twice a week show 30% higher levels of the immunoglobulin A antibody,
known to boost the immune system. Regular sex reduces depression (lousy sex
notwithstanding), helps improve better bladder control (the PC muscle, which
controls urine flow, gets worked during sex), reduces risk of heart disease,
provides pain relief (migraines, arthritis, etc), and is the one
cardiovascular exercise most people can get excited about. (Alan Farnham, “Is
Sex Necessary? ,” Forbes.com, October 8, 2003)

I can't resist quoting
in full one benefit of regular sex from the Forbes.com article:

Better teeth:
Seminal plasma contains zinc, calcium and other minerals shown to retard
tooth decay. Since this is a family Web site, we will omit discussion of the
mineral delivery system. Suffice it to say that it could be a far richer,
more complex and more satisfying experience than squeezing a tube of Crest
-- even Tartar Control Crest. Researchers have noted, parenthetically, that
sexual etiquette usually demands the brushing of one's teeth before and/or
after intimacy, which, by itself, would help promote better oral hygiene.

So down with “Shock
and Awe,” and up with “Stroke and Ahh.” “Make Love Not War” has more
positive and deep implications than the coiners of that wonderful slogan may
have imagined. It's a pity the Prude Police in this sexually backward
country may continue to get away with scaring the media and politicians into
“avoiding controversy” by not making the importance of regular sex and/or
masturbation part of the national discussion.